Method of cutting pineapple in preparation for canning



Dec.10,1935- A. HORNER 2,023,810

METHOD OF, CUTTING PINEAPPLE IN PREPARATION FOR GANIIING Filed Feb. 24, 19:54

sm'wm IN VENTOR 4AZIIBEQTJYOENEB A TZORNEY} Patented Dec. 10, 1935 UNITED STATES METHOD OF CUTTING PINEAPPLE IN PREPARATION FOR CANNING Albert Homer, Kapaa,

Hawaii, assignor Kauai, Territory of to Hawaiian v Canneries Company, Lti, Kapaa, Kauai, Territory of Hawaii Application February 24,

4 Claims.

This invention relatesto a method and means I for treating pineapple and particularly pertains to an improved method and means for cutting pineapple in preparation for canning.

The first operation generally employed in preparing pineapples for canning is to pass the fruit through a machine known as a Ginaca machine, and attached devices which perform the following operations: The fruit has the ends cut off, the core removed, a cylinder of correct diameter to fit a can is cut longitudinally out of. the center of the fruit and is routed into the cannery, and the remaining edible meat attached to the peel is planed off to become what is commercially known as crushed pineapple. Crushed pineapple has relatively small commercial value due to the size, shapes and condition of the fragments or pieces of which it is composed, and it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a method and means of cutting and preparing the pineapple of which crushed pineapple is usually made so that the pineapple may be removed from the peel in pieces of substantially uniform size, sightly appearance, and in a more edible condition than is now the custom.

The present invention contemplates the provision of means acting to score, cut and otherwise act upon that portion of pineapple meat usually associated with the removed portion of the pineapple peel to separate the same therefrom in pieces of substantially uniform predetermined size and shape.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawing, in which:-

Figure l is a view in perspective showing the mechanismon which the pineapple meat is finally separated from slices of the peel.

Fig. 2 is a view in end elevation showing the cutting device by which the peel is removed from the pineapple and scored.

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation showing the cutting device.

Fig. 4 is a view in plan showing the usual random manner in which the pineapple meat breaks from the peel.

Fig. 5 is a view in plan showing the initial scoring made by the cutter of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a view in plan showing the completely scored pineapple meat.

Fig. '7 is a view in transverse section as seen on the line 1-1 of-Fig. 4.

Fig. 8 is a view in transverse section as seen on the line 8-8 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 9 is a view in transverse section as seen on the line 99 of Fig. 6.

1934, Serial No. 712,779

Fig. 10 is a view in perspective showing the final product.

Fig. 11 is a view in end elevation showing the pineapple peel as severed by the slitting knife.

The device usually employed to remove the 5 meat from the peel is calleda sheller. The usual form of this device, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, consists of a nail studded belt Ill between two pulleys II and I2, above which are a series of vertical cutting fins I3, parallel 10 to each other, and extending in the-direction of belt .travel l4.

The peel with the meat, as shown inFigs. 3 and 4, and indicated by the numeral I5 is carried by the nail studded belt l0 against and under 15 the fins l3 with the fins flattening the peel against the belt by extending through the soft meat, It, to the tough peel 11. When the peel is flattened and the meat is projected upward between the I fins I3 a slitting knife l8 disposed in a parallel 20 plane to that of the upper run of the belt and a correct distance above it. The knife i8 is disposed across the path of travel of the pineapple meat IG, severing it from the peel ll. This severed meat falls apart in smallpieces and 25 becomes crushed. In usual methods, this meat breaks into pieces at random along irregular lines, as indicated at a in Fig. 4.

It is the purpose of this invention to keep the meat from falling apart into small or irregular 30 shaped pieces, and to cut it into approximate squares, or other quadrilateral shapes which can be canned and sold at a higher price than crushed pineapple.

To effect this result a fiat ring I9 is placed in 35 an embracing position around a revolving cylindrical knife 20, usually employed to cut the center cylinder from the fruit. On the outside of the ring are placed small blades 2| at suitable spaced intervals, which project radially from the ring. 40 The ring is also provided with a peel splitting blade 22 by which the ring is supported in a fixed position near the outer end of the cutter, and through which the cutter rotates.

The fruit in passing through the revolving cylindrical knife 20 is divided into the center cylinder (not shown) and the peel I5 carrying the meat Hi. In passing over the small blades and onto the cutter 20 the meat is scored by the blades 2| in longitudinal lines 17, and the peel is split 50 at 23. When now the peel is flattened by the aforementioned sheller the meat l6 instead of separating into innumerable small divisions "a, divides along the longitudinal lines cut into it by the blades 2| on the ring IS. The fins I! on 55 the sheller now cut into the meat along lines "0 at right angles to the lines cut by the ring blades, as the pieces are fed by the belt l0, dividing the meat attached to the peel into quadrilaterals being approximate squares 24. When the meat now passes beneath the diagonal splitting knife l8, these squares are severed as approximate squares 24, instead of irregular pieces commonly known to the trade as crushed.

Means already exist for passing the peel from one operation to another. The novelty in this invention lying in that in following its usual route over the cylindrical cutter 20, it must pass over the ring I9, and its blades 2| and receive the above described longitudinal scoring lines b cut into the meat It of the peel section.

It will thus be seen that the method and means here shown insures that the pineapple meat usually recovered from the removed peel, may be caused to assume regular shapes of determined form, as compared to the irregular pieces now obtained due to the random cracking and breaking of the meat as it passes through the sheller.

While I have shown the preferred form of apparatus and method of practicing said invention, it will be understood that varlous'changes may be made in the combination of parts and the steps of the invention by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of treating pineapple'which consists in removing sections of pineapple peel and an associated thickness of pineapple meat from a pineapple, forming parallel longitudinal scoring lines in the surface of the meat of the pineapple which was removed with the peeL'thereafter forming transverse scoring lines in the surface of said meat whereby said surface will be divided into a plurality of quadrilateral fields, and then severing the meat from the peel in a plane lengthwise of the peel whereby a plurality of separate quadrilateral pieces of pineapple meat will be formed.

2. A method of treating pineapple which consists in removing the peel from the pineapple in a section substantially representing the developed circumferential surface of the pineapple, forming parallel longitudinal scoring lines in the surface of the meat of the pineapple which was removed with the peel, thereafter forming transverse scoring lines in the surface of the meat of 5 the pineapple, whereby said surface will be subdivided into a plurality of quadrilateral fields, and then severing the meat from the peel in a plane lengthwise of the peel whereby a plurality of separate quadrilateral pieces of pineapple meat 10 will be found.

3. A method of treating pineapple which consists in removing the peel from the pineapple in a section substantially representing the developed circumferential surface thereof, forming paral- 5 lel scoring lines across the surface of the meat of the pineapple and longitudinally thereof, unrolling said peel to cause it to lie flat, thereafter forming a plurality of parallel lines across the surface of the pineapple at an angle to the lines 20 previously formed, whereby the surface of the pineapple will be scored to form fields of uniform configuration, then severing the meat'of the pineapple from'the peel in a plane lengthwise thereof whereby a plurality of separate pieces of 5 pineapple of substantially uniform configuration will be obtained.

4. A method of treating pineapple peel to obtain unbroken pieces of pineapple normally associated therewith after a core of meat has been 30 removed, which consists in forming a plurality of longitudinal serrations in the peelsimultaneously with the separation of a cylindrical core of meat from the peel and simultaneously splitting the peel longitudinally incident thereto, thereafter 35 laying the peel fiat with the meat portion presented upwardly and then forming a plurality of parallel serrations in the meat portion transversely of the longitudinal serrations previously formed whereby the meat associated with the peel will be subdivided into a plurality of rectilinear portions associated with the peel and then severing the meat from the peel to produce a plurality of rectilinear pieces of pineapple meat.

ALBERT HORNER. 

